


Magical Mysteria

by ohwhoadude



Category: Bill & Ted (Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, First Time, Frottage, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, a few others get mentioned but only tagging the ones who speak, i kinda mess with the canon of the ending but Hey, touched on here and there so some usage of slurs be warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:02:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26762530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohwhoadude/pseuds/ohwhoadude
Summary: Two snapshots from both Bill & Ted during and after one curious night that changed things for one and maybe only cemented them for another.
Relationships: Ted "Theodore" Logan/Bill S. Preston Esq.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 165





	Magical Mysteria

**Author's Note:**

> Uh hi hello so I haven't written fanfic in literal years but these two boneheads inspired me plus I've hit a wall in my original work so here I am with a piece whose title is inspired by Def Leppard's "Hysteria" which is a deeply B&T song for me. I think and hope I've gotten these two right but if I haven't, I apologize. Finally, all explicit content only happens once they're adults so please don't be a freak and want it to be otherwise! Feel free to follow my stan twitter @ohwhoadude for B&T, Reddie, and some other bullshit. Alright let's go:

Ted “Theodore” Logan is 16 years old and feels most unintelligent.

He’s been called dumb before, plenty of times; he knows he’s not the brightest kid in all of San Dimas, but this is something else entirely. It’s been a month since he and Bill had their most excellent adventure of them all and he knows that they proved so many people wrong about how totally not dumb they are. His dad, Mr. Ryan, and every single prep or jock or geek at school can’t say anything to them now, especially now that they know what cool guys they’re gonna be years from now with the hottest of medieval babes on their arms. So why does it feel like they’re doing something wrong?

Rufus warned them that their song wouldn’t come immediately and that was fine, whatever. They still _did_ need to learn how to play and get better gear and all that cool shit that Eddie Van Halen could totally get them like Bill promised, but it’s the way that the princesses act with them that gets him. Obviously he and Bill aren’t brutes and wouldn’t force them to do anything they don’t want to, but they seem way more like sisters to them the longer they hang out. Jam sessions are great and Elizabeth and Joanna are picking up the drums and keys so quickly that he feels a little intimidated when he fumbles with his strings, but those sparks of creativity don’t spark into those of chemistry. It’s not like Ted doesn’t want them to; the way Elizabeth lights up when she finds the right combo of notes to play with his riffs makes him feel warm inside.

Yet whenever they’re all eating or doing a mall run to unwind after practicing, the girls keep looking at them like they know something they don’t. They’re not rude or anything and they still play along with whatever they’re doing, but whenever Bill starts showing off new tech they’ve never experienced or Ted parades them through the record shop to show off their favorites they get these looks on their faces that is most troubling. They’ll giggle and coo over the boys which yeah, is totally valid since the last time it happened, Bill was telling them about that one time Ted got so excited to find a track on Def Leppard’s latest album to show him that he scratched the record with the needle on accident. Plus yeah, he _did_ immediately gush to the princesses how it was worth it since Bill immediately started headbanging to it even as the other boy panicked over how his new record was totally gonna be ruined now.

Come to think of it, maybe Elizabeth and Joanna keep looking at them like that because they just keep talking about each other.

And deep down there’s nothing wrong with that, Ted reasons as he lays on his stomach in a much too baggy Megadeth shirt and plaid drawstring bottoms on Bill’s bed scribbling out some lyric ideas in his notebook. He just wants the girls to learn everything they can about the boys that are supposed to be like, their soulmates or something. As he listens to the sounds of Bill humming some new melody as he brushes his teeth down the hall, he figures that maybe all the knights and princes back where they’re from only bragged about each other. The princesses have to be tired of it by now and Ted imagines it’s most egregious, so maybe he and Bill just need to shut up and be more rugged. Well any sort of rugged, really, the thought of them sword-fighting or facing off dragons making him laugh to himself as he erases away words about confusion in his heart. Man, why can’t dragons be real anyway? Now he knows that time travel is, it’s totally bogus that no other cool stuff like that is either for them to-

“Dude, your socks.”

Ted looks up to find Bill back in his bedroom, the door now shut and the other boy clad in his own lilac pajama set. “Huh?”

Bill grins and points at the leg Ted has pointing upward where he lays, saying, “Sick firebreathers, Ted.”

He turns his head to look at some of those very dragons he was thinking about, waving his foot at himself proudly before turning to smile back at him. “Thanks, Bill.”

Bill runs his fingers through his curls before coming over to lay next to him, landing on his back with a thud that makes Ted wobble a bit once he lands. They’ve still got the new Black Sabbath album playing even as they’re planning to head to bed soon and while listening to another band should be helping inspire Ted, it’s not. Now that he’s become too aware of how close he and Bill are around other people and especially around people they want to kiss, he’s more aware of how Bill’s bed is only just big enough to snugly fit the two of them when they’re alone. They’re practically shoulder-to-shoulder and Ted can feel the warmth of Bill’s skin against him through his sleeve if he really focuses and instead of writing “an answer” to follow “I only need” in the line he’s currently on, he ends up writing the other boy’s name instead.

When he realizes just in time for Bill to open his mouth to speak, his eyes go wide at what he’s done and he quickly erases it, hoping he didn’t notice.

“...You think they’re finally gonna stick with somebody that wasn’t in Deep Purple?”

Ted’s brow furrows, a mix of relief and puzzlement filling his head. “You mean this guy isn’t?”

“No, my most unobservant friend,” Bill says, throwing up and catching a crumpled ball of notebook paper that Ted discarded hours ago that’s part of a pile next to the bed. “And I hope they do because he wails, dude.”

Convinced that he’s safe from any question, Ted lets himself grin and nod enthusiastically with a little, “Yeah he does. You think we can learn to like that too?”

“Totally!”

Ted joins Bill in a celebratory air guitar before putting his pencil and notebook into his backpack resting at the foot of the bed in front of them. When he comes back up to rest his head on his forearms, he sighs and blows a few of his bangs away from his eyes. “What do you think Elizabeth and Joanna are up to?”

Bill shrugs. “Girl stuff, I guess.”

Ted snickers. “I guess so.”

Those credit cards Rufus gave the princesses also paid for an apartment that their landlord rented out to them with zero questions as to why two British teenage girls suddenly showed up in San Dimas on their own since they had plenty of cash to spare. The boys had been there a few times and it made Ted feel even more out of his league than he did the day they met them which was saying something since both he and Bill were well-off enough with their dads. They hadn’t seen more than their living area, kitchen, and bathroom which didn’t bother him, but still made him wonder. 

“But like,” he starts curiously, his other leg coming up to join the one still resting above him. “Do you think they talk about us?”

“They gotta be crazy about us, dude,” Bill answers, managing to get that paper ball higher towards the ceiling on each throw. “They’re with us all the time so what else could they talk about?”

Ted knows that’s a lie since band practice is every three days instead of every single day and the princesses have made a bunch of girlfriends already that they hang out with. It’s better than the alternative of them secretly not being interested, though, so he doesn’t argue too much about it but does say, “Maybe they’ll finally ask us to spend the night soon.”

Bill turns to raise an eyebrow at him and smirks. “Ted, you horndog.”

“I don’t mean like that, dude, I just-”

“Just what?”

Feeling nervous to really get into it, Ted kicks his legs back and forth to calm himself down and rests his cheek on his arm. “Maybe they don’t actually like us.”

The way Bill laughs makes that familiar warmth he gets over Elizabeth flood his insides and Ted focuses on the way Bill’s paper ball finally hits the ceiling and lands on his chest to ignore it. “No way, dude,” he says before he sits up and extends his arms with an incredulous look. “Do you think there’s any other guys like us they know?”

“Negative.”

“None of those English dickweeds dress like us,” Bill asserts, popping the collar of his pajama top. “They don’t have the totally rad records we do or the most stimulating vocabulary or the handsome good looks!”

Ted has to laugh at the way Bill runs his fingers over his own jawline and cheekbones to show off. “You do look like those statues Socrates had.”

“And look at you, dude!” Bill lies back down to ruffle Ted’s hair with an encouraging, “You’re like a long lost Ramone, they gotta be into that.”

The feeling of Bill’s fingers in his hair making him feel flush is definitely only because he’d rather Elizabeth's fingers be in it and nothing else.

“They don’t even know who the Ramones are,” Ted answers in lieu of dealing with that quandary.

“But they can - we got so much cooler stuff to teach them about.”

“I guess.”

Bill shrugs. “Unless you really think they just want to jump our bones.”

Ted hides his face in his arms, embarrassed since he hasn’t thought that far yet. “They haven’t even wanted to kiss us again, dude.”

“So we’re just doing what they want!”

“Or what we think they want.”

While they’re both not very bright, Ted’s always had a more difficult time reading people which is something that pisses his dad off constantly. Sometimes, much like now, he’s worried that his assumptions about the princesses are just that but the one person who’s never gotten genuinely mad at him for being slow on the uptake is Bill. He’s desperate to know that the other boy’s either troubled that way too or has the answers he needs, so it makes him come out from his hiding place when Bill says, “Then let’s figure out how to find out!”

“Yeah!”

They high five then, the smile it gives Ted staying on his face as Bill throws that paper ball back onto the pile and turns on his side to face him fully. “So there’s no way we’re changing any of that,” he says while gesturing at the pile of clothes they had on earlier. “The babes find us most charming in those.”

Ted nods, recalling the memory of Elizabeth and Joanna complimenting them on how loud and bright their coordinated colors were the night they arrived in San Dimas once Rufus left. Sometimes he uses it to cover up the way he still can’t figure out another memory from that night. He might’ve been hearing things and he might’ve been just reading the room wrong again, but Ted swore that when he leaned in to kiss Elizabeth, he could hear Rufus chuckling under his breath. At first he was able to brush it off as the man being amused at how ready Ted was to kiss the princess that caught his eye, but now that said princess is falling out of his gaze, maybe he was wrong.

“I know,” he yelps, his legs falling back onto the bed. “We can ask Rufus!”

Bill frowns. “What’s Rufus got to do with it?”

“He knows everything about where we end up, right? So it’s most apparent to me that he would know what we did to get there. You know, like how we make the princesses fall in love with us and stuff.”

“You can’t make somebody fall in love with you, Ted.”

Ted scoffs and playfully shoves at Bill’s shoulder. “You know what I mean, dude!”

Bill laughs and shoves him back, saying, “Yeah, whatever - besides, he’s way busy _and_ that’s totally cheating.”

Ted keeps himself from saying that bringing all those dudes and one dudette from history to the present for their report was totally cheating too, but he does tug at Bill’s collar and says, “Alright, then what excellent idea do you have?”

“Write somethin’ for them?”

“No way, dude, I’m tapped out for the night,” Ted says, leaning down and smacking his backpack for emphasis. “I just want to know that Elizabeth still likes me.”

Bill grins. “Maybe she thinks you suck at kissing."

That’s enough to make Ted roll onto his side to face him, raising his eyebrows. “Bill, my most cherished friend, are you really accusing me of something so heinous after calling me a ladies man?”

“ _I_ never said you sucked,” Bill said defensively with a giggle.

“But you thought about it!”

Granted, Ted’s only kissed three girls in his life: there was Gina Hartley in fifth grade who was his first and went for it after he didn’t get the hint that she liked him, Abbie Evans who was his first attempt at having a girlfriend the summer before ninth grade and broke it off right as school was back in session when he turned down too many dates to hang out with Bill, and now Elizabeth who seemed like she was going in the second’s direction. Yet the three of them seemed pleased enough with him, especially Elizabeth who he figured wasn’t used to anything beyond kisses on the back of the hand with how totally lame and archaic medieval times were. Bill was just being rude by implying otherwise, especially with how many girls constantly ogled him in the hallways and wanted all the attention he was giving Bill.

Bill who was definitely not somebody he thought about as much as Elizabeth. That totally wasn’t a problem.

“Alright hot lips, prove it then!”

Ted frowns, forgetting about every girl that had crossed his path to face that very problem. “Wait, what?”

“You heard me, dude,” Bill said, bringing his hand up to flick at the corner of his mouth. “If you’re so good at it, then give me one.”

Ted’s breathing catches in his throat. He has to be mishearing him or misinterpreting him or something that makes what Bill just said impossible. Staring down at Bill’s mouth, he swallows thickly and says, “Dude, that’s - that’s kinda - _homo_ , isn’t it?”

The word “homo” comes out of his mouth so softly that he’s afraid Bill didn’t hear him, but Bill shrugs and says, “It’s not like I asked you to mount me or anything. It’s just a kiss, dude!”

Ted guesses that’s true, but there’s this weird feeling in his stomach over the idea of kissing him that he can’t shake. Gay stuff isn’t cool and it’s weird and they’d be freaks for doing it; at least that’s what the jocks say about them sometimes and even his dad who rambles at dinner about “fairies” who get taken in at the station sometimes. That’s at least what he’s making himself believe that funny feeling is instead of how similar it is to those butterflies he feels over Elizabeth’s smile or laugh or-

No. No he’s not doing it, this is not happening, and the reason why he wants to be with Bill all the time is not because he’s a total fruit for him and secretly always has been or anything. Shut up, Ted.

His gaze goes back up to look Bill in the eye. “Just one?”

“Yeah, that’s all.” Bill waggles his fingers at him before he dramatically puckers his lips once he says, “Now c’mere, loverboy!”

Fine. Ted can do this. Bill’s got his eyes closed and everything so it’ll be okay if he just leans in and gives him a quick little peck on his lips, so he does before leaning back in with a sigh. Once he’s pulled away, Bill peeks one eye open and says, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No,” Ted says, shaking his head. “I guess if I had to kiss another guy, it would be you.”

Bill laughs and Ted knows it’s his cue to join him in a joyful cry of, “Fag,” but this time it doesn’t feel right. Not this time when he’s letting himself acknowledge how he feels about Bill and the way he really looks so up close like this. He isn’t supposed to notice how blue his eyes are or how nicely shaped his nose and jawline are after all, but he does and if he’s not careful, he might just-

“I’d choose you too, though.”

That’s enough to make Ted’s mind stop racing. “You would?”

“Yeah, I mean,” Bill starts, reaching out to flick at the corner at his mouth again but much softer this time. “You do have excellently soft lips.”

Ted licks them without thinking, still feeling nervous. “I do?”

“Uh huh,” Bill says softly. “Any babe would be stupid to not want to kiss them.”

It’s that which makes Ted notice that Bill’s index finger is still lingering against his face and he prays that what he thinks is the right thing to say right now won’t totally blow up in his face. “Bill?”

“Yeah, Ted?”

“...Do you want me to kiss you again?”

Bill’s brow furrows before he brings his hand up to rest on Ted’s jawline. “Do _you_ want to?”

He squirms, his legs twisting against the mattress to give him something to do while he thinks of whether or not he should answer that honestly. Ted feels too chickenshit to actually say it out loud, so instead he lets himself nod a few times enough to slip out of Bill’s hold and lean in for a second one. “I just want to be sure,” he says while still close enough for their noses to bump together.

The way he can _feel_ Bill laughing gently against his lips gives his arms goosebumps, but not as much as the way Bill whispers, "Best buds are supposed to help each other, right?"

“Right.”

“Then kiss me.”

And this time, it’s Bill that leans in for a kiss and he lingers there, making Ted’s legs go still where they are. Bill brings his hand up to cup his face properly and Ted brings his up to rest against the other boy’s chest, unsure of what else to do with them. He knows that Bill has about the same amount of experience as he does but this newness of kissing another guy makes it take them a few soft, close-mouthed kisses to figure out how they need to open up a little and tilt their heads just so to make it something special. Something sparking inside him, Ted slides his palms up until they’re resting against Bill’s neck and Bill moves to card his fingers through Ted’s hair and it feels so gentle that there’s no way this is just Bill helping him anymore. Tentatively, he brings one hand up to thread his own through Bill’s curls and the way he sighs over it makes Ted hum against his lips. Once he feels Bill’s free hand come to spread out against his back, Ted pulls away and leans his forehead against his, so confused and yet so warm in his grasp.

Immediately, Bill pushes Ted’s hair behind his ear and asks, “You okay?”

Ted’s way more than okay and that’s the problem, especially since Bill’s running his fingers along his back and it feels too nice to be true. “This is most bizarre, dude.”

“We can stop,” Bill insists softly before bringing his hands away and raising them in surrender the best he can in the tight space between them. “It’s just us messing around, right?”

“Dude,” Ted sighs, not moving his own hands away from him. “I don’t think I want to stop.”

He can’t read Bill’s face over that and it scares him, but he’s not trying to lurch away from him so that’s something. Yet he’s quiet and staring at him, unmoving, so Ted’s fingers falters in his hair as he adds, “That’s too fruity, isn’t it, I’m sorry, I’m-”

Any apology he had to give Bill was silenced by Bill moving back in for a deeper kiss this time, making Ted gasp and grip his collar for purchase. Maybe it _is_ too fruity and he _does_ feel something for Bill more than the way he does for Elizabeth, but what matters more is that maybe Bill does for him too. The drive to find out if he’s making it all up with whatever screws with his head or not makes him roll onto his back and drag Bill with him to land on top of him. Bill lets out an _oof_ into his mouth once they land that makes Ted laugh against him and their next few kisses are giggly and messy because of it. This is everything he thought they wanted with the princesses, but maybe the real answer was right here in front of them the whole time. Maybe Rufus laughed at him because he also knew it was Bill he should’ve kissed the way that makes the other boy take his hands and thread his fingers through his against the sheets.

Maybe if Ted could just be honest with himself, things could always be like this.

Before he can think of any more maybes, a knock on the door makes Bill jump away from him until he’s sat against the wall on the other end of the bed. He manages to get comfortable and inconspicuous where he sits while Ted rolls back onto his stomach just in time for a robe-clad Missy to open the door and poke her head in to ask a gentle, “Don’t you think that music’s a little loud so late, guys?”

Ted looks at the clock to see that it’s approaching midnight which makes him laugh softly and bury his face into his arms.

“Yeah, sorry, Mis- Mom,” Bill says before he nearly drops his stereo remote when he grabs it to shut it off. Once the music’s stopped, he tosses it back onto his bedside table before turning the covers down and saying, “We’re gonna go to sleep now.”

“Right,” Ted follows up breathily, looking up to see Missy smirking at them.

“Good idea,” she chuckles before waving goodbye at them and shutting the door closed.

Once she’s gone, Ted turns to see Bill moving his head back against the wall with an exasperated sigh. “Dude, that would’ve been most terrifying to get walked in on.”

The embarrassed laugh Ted lets out at the idea sounds incredibly loud in his ears, but he still nods excitedly. “Are we really going to sleep?”

He hopes he doesn’t sound too pleading, knowing that he has no right to assume that anything definitely has changed between them, but he can’t help being a little hopeful. Ted’s scared to go any further than what they’ve done, but he already misses the feeling of Bill’s lips against his so the way Bill says, “We should,” makes him ache just enough to hurt.

It would be a most abhorrent idea to make that apparent, though, so Ted gets up to turn the light off while Bill reaches to get the lamp above his bed on. Usually when he sleeps over, he has a small air mattress to sleep on but it hasn’t occurred to him to get it set up with how the night’s gone. He looks down sheepishly at his backpack, but the sound of Bill patting his hand against his own mattress makes him look back up to see that he’s left room for him. “Really?”

“Yeah, come on,” Bill says, now tucked under the covers.

Ted can’t help but grin and twist back and forth on his heels at the idea before coming to get under there with him. Once he’s laid down and comfortable, he moves on his side to look at Bill who seems happy to stay on his back. “So um, what do we now?”

“Go to sleep?”

“No, dude,” Ted says softly, reaching his hand out carefully to rest on his shoulder. “About all the - you know.”

Bill smiles for just a second before licking his lips and saying, “Well now we know that we definitely know how to kiss. The princesses will be most satisfied now, right?”

He should’ve known that he wouldn’t get a huge declaration of gay love or anything, but Ted can’t help but feel a little crushed. Even if getting to kiss Bill and feeling his soft, albeit chaste, touch was most enlightening for him, it would be pretty shitty of them to just dump Elizabeth and Joanna like that. It's obvious that Bill still really likes Joanna and Ted definitely still has some kind of affection for Elizabeth, so maybe he could be wrong about their destiny after all. Maybe it was worth trying to make it work with them not only for the future, but just the band itself. Ted would hate for them to turn into Fleetwood Mac or something where all their albums are just songs where they yell at each other instead of something meant to bring people together. That’s why he lets himself nod and say, “Most definitely.”

Bill moves to look at him with that smile coming back on his face. “Sorry for insulting your romantic ways, dude.”

“No problem, dude.” He knows the conversation should end there so they can just sleep off any possible queer tension, but Ted can’t stop himself from asking, “Can you promise me something, though?”

“What?”

“If I, uh,” he says, stopping to swallow at the creeping dryness in his throat. “If I ever want you to help me like that again, will you?”

The few beats of silence that follow feel like hours to him, squinting in the bit of light he has to try to read any disgust on Bill’s face. Soon enough, to his relief, Bill slowly nods and says, “Yeah. Whenever you’re ready, just shoot.”

That telltale warmth finds its way into his stomach a final time that night, making him hide his face in his pillow with a shy chuckle of, “Okay,” against it.

If he’s not mistaken, he swears he feels Bill petting through his hair before he clears his throat and pulls it away to tell him good night. He whispers it back before trying to stay comfortable in the tight space they have together in bed, wondering if maybe being a fag wasn’t actually the demonic thing so many people in his life keep making it out to be.

If it’s Bill that Ted’s a fag for, it can’t be wrong, even if he might just have to keep pushing it down forever.

__________________________________

Bill S. Preston, Esquire is 21 years old and feels most dejected.

It’s been five righteous years since the princesses came into their lives and he was so sure that they’d be in love with him and Ted by now, but it just never happened. The four of them still care for each other and the band is still in full swing, but it’s become evident that any romance trying to be forged isn’t going to come to pass. He did manage to kiss Joanna again and reach at least second base; according to Ted, Elizabeth even let him see their bedroom a few times, but nothing ever came from it beyond uncomfortable avoidance whenever he tried to ask him about it. The girls were clearly frustrated with them when it came to how they were as couples so the quartet decided to end that chapter completely for the band’s benefit.

Bill would be lying if he said he wasn’t completely bummed out by it, though.

At least he had Ted to hang out with for distractions, the other man having been kicked out by his dad a whole 24 hours after he turned 18. In an act of chivalry, he avoided asking the princesses if he could stay at their place and instead was welcomed with open arms into the Preston household until he and Bill managed to get enough money for their own place. Things were just as much of a bummer to start there too with Bill’s dad fresh off a divorce from Missy (who tried her best to get Captain Logan to let Ted stay a little longer), but at least that meant he left them alone due to depression or being out of the house in an attempt to find someone new. The duo spent their time doing their usual shenanigans of songwriting, snacking, and watching movies all while job-hunting and busting their asses to make money.

It pissed him off how much more carefree Ted seemed knowing he didn’t have to go home to his dad, sometimes making Bill fantasize about telling off that goddamn pig.

It could’ve been the fact that it took them another three years to get enough cash to rent out an apartment from one of the more modest complexes in San Dimas that made Elizabeth and Joanna finally give up on them, but at least they finally have it. Bill knows it’s nothing to write home about compared to theirs, but it’s enough for them. He and Ted spend the first week with their own apartment shopping for groceries and any furniture or kitchenware their space doesn’t have and decorating it with all kinds of band merch, even getting two goldfish on Ted’s insistence when he sees a display of them in the window of the pet store in the nearby shopping complex. Little Jimi and little Eddie have a happy home with them in their kitchen now and Bill can’t help but get a kick out of the way Ted will get on his knees to talk to them through their fishbowl when it’s time to feed them.

He would definitely be lying again if he said the sweet little smile Ted gets on his face while he watches them swim around doesn’t make his stomach do little flips.

But that’s totally normal, not weird, and just because the two of them are leaning on each other hardcore lately now that they’re officially single. Bill totally doesn’t feel a small pang of jealousy when Ted’s so delighted that they’re on their own now that he suggests they have a small housewarming party instead of just celebrating on their own. Yet he can’t say no to him, especially when their landlord doesn’t complain about how they plan to make the most out of the pool in the heart of the complex to host the gathering with a small group of friends and Deacon.

At least Deacon would have been there if he and Ted’s dad didn’t insist that he didn’t need to be running around with a bunch of degenerates. Bill doesn’t say anything about the way Ted clearly covers up how disappointed he is once he gets off the phone with him.

Now that it’s a few hours into the night in question, however, Bill’s most pleased to see his best friend and now roommate acting like his normal self among their coworkers from their jobs at Pretzels ‘N Cheese, the few other metalhead friends of theirs from high school that they still talk to, and the princesses. Joanna and Elizabeth seem like they’re proud of their now friends’ meager accomplishments, the former staying near Bill throughout the party while a bikini-clad Elizabeth goes between chatting to Ted and mingling with the others. She has no choice but to since Ted’s been having way too much fun showing off in the middle of the pool with the other guys and Bill wonders if he’s doing it to win her back or something.

It’s better than noticing how lean and chiseled Ted’s figure is starting to get where he wades across from them in the shallow end.

Joanna, meanwhile, is content sitting on the edge of the pool in a simple one-piece bathing suit behind him and lightly taps his shoulder with her foot while he’s in the middle of watching Ted playing chicken with his coworker from his shifts Jainie, a beautiful tattooed rocker chick with a black manicure and blood red long hair, on his shoulders. Once Bill looks up at Joanna, she smiles down at him and says, “You can join them, I won’t mind.”

Bill snorts. “No way - Ted’s way too tall to lose at this game.”

“Are you really just meant to push the other person in?”

“Uh huh.”

She tuts, making him laugh again. “Maybe you _are_ better off back here with me.”

Bill can only shrug, too preoccupied with the way Jainie and Ted cheer once they win before Jainie hugs him close once she slips off his shoulders back into the water. He returns it with that dopey grin he gets every time he’s truly happy and the last time Bill saw Ted smile like that while hugging a babe was Elizabeth. Said princess isn’t paying attention to him while they start chatting after so he guesses he’s not trying to make her jealous after all. He’s also never made any indication to him that he’s into somebody else, so Bill really shouldn’t be watching them like a hawk.

But it’s hard when every time Ted goes near anybody else in any sort of intimate way, he remembers one night years ago that he forces himself to repress unless he wants to deal with internal conflict that he can’t fathom.

“William?”

The feeling of the softest lips he’s ever kissed disappears when he looks back up at Joanna looking more concerned this time. “What?”

She reaches down to lightly scratch at his scalp. “He’s not going to disappear if you don’t watch him every second.”

Bill scoffs, partly because she’s teasing him over something genuinely bothering him and partly because he’s clearly not being subtle and he’s mad at himself. “I’m just making sure our guests are most satisfied as one of their charming hosts.”

“Is that why you only have eyes for the ones Theodore talks to?”

“I’m just like,” Bill starts, nearly losing his words as he watches Ted slowly push his hair out of his face while waving Jainie and his other coworkers goodbye. “Bein’ an extra pair of eyes, you know? Two heads and all.”

He gives Joanna a toothy grin, hoping that’s convincing enough, but she just laughs and taps his head a few times before standing and drying her legs off. “I believe that,” she says warmly as she works before standing up straight and waving towards Elizabeth when she starts heading towards them. “But I don’t know if you do.”

“Huh?”

“Good night, William,” she says cheerfully before joining her sister to head off after she says her own goodbyes. 

As they pass Ted, Bill watches him swim over to see them both off, Ted reaching out to kiss the back of Elizabeth’s hand when they do. Just like Joanna was with him, they’re still okay with platonic signs of affection like that and it’s the only time Bill doesn’t feel aching envy when Ted interacts with a woman. It feels like Bill’s the only one who remembers what he does and once the rest of their guests make their exit, the pool he and his best friend are still in feels even bigger and daunting. He has half a mind to get out and go ahead to bed, but Ted seems to have other ideas with the way he stretches his arms above his head and sighs before calling out, “Bill, c’mere!”

Bill feels like a total pussweed as he forces himself to slowly swim over to him, but the way the crystal necklace that Elizabeth gave Ted for his last birthday glistens in the moonlight against his chest motivates him to get a closer look. When he does, Ted rushes to push the pink pool float drifting between them out of the way, the move making Bill let out the breath he’d been holding in nervous laughter. As it bounces off the side of the pool and away from them, he finally meets a still enthusiastic Ted who’s watching him expectantly. “What’s up?”

“I missed you, dude,” Ted says, moving his arms back and forth where they rest on the surface. “I thought you went back inside or something.”

There’s a small sad edge to his normal, excited tone that makes Bill quick to shake his head and ask, “And leave the party? No, dude, I was totally relaxed back there. I didn’t want to interrupt you guys.”

“It would’ve been cool if you did,” Ted replies immediately, but he doesn’t seem too hurt. “They like you.”

Bill’s own coworkers from his shifts had nothing but nice things to say about Ted too, but it’s difficult to think about them when Ted keeps looking at him like that. “Next time.”

That makes Ted do his usual excited nod, something that always makes Bill feel like he’s done something right. “So what now?”

Bill knows they really should go inside since it’s getting majorly late and they don’t need to ruin any goodwill they have with their landlord, but he still feels bad for depriving Ted of quality time with him. He could easily be covering up any disappointment just like he did about Deacon and if he can fix that, he’s going to even if his eyes keep drifting down to Ted’s damp torso covered in a blue hue from the lights below. He lets them linger on the freckle under his ribcage and he finds himself getting ideas that he absolutely cannot get while only in a pair of boardshorts.

The sound of water sloshing around snaps him out of it when Ted moves slightly to look down at himself with, “What is it?”

If there’s anything Bill hasn’t done as he’s gotten older, it’s gotten smarter, so he’s incredibly obvious with his staring. He’s got to figure something out to escape any further questions and quickly so he lets himself be a little kid like Ted was earlier and reaches out to point at his stomach. “You got something right _here!_ ”

The second it comes out of his mouth, he splashes at Ted with his right arm, making him jump back and raise his arms in defense. After he shakes the excess water from his hair with a grunt, he splashes back at Bill with both arms for a bigger wave. When Bill cries out and moves back from the shock, Ted smirks and asks, “Did you get it?”

Alright. He’ll definitely stay a little longer now.

“Not yet,” Bill answers, giving him another blast.

“Dude!”

“What?!”

Ted doesn’t answer in favor of giving him another splash instead and soon enough, it’s a full scale war that forces them to use some of the smaller floaters and pool toys as weapons in their splash arsenal. If being adults meant they could snack and watch stupid stuff on TV all day whenever they wanted, then so could it for playfighting in the pool any night they chose. While they start out annoyed, any malice is very quickly replaced with joy, the two of them giggling the longer they go on. Eventually Bill manages to back Ted into a corner next to the stairs of the deep end and even though Ted does his best to escape, Bill grasps his wrists to keep him steady.

“Come on, dude,” Ted laughs out, struggling. “I said I’d get the rent this first month, you have to be nice to me!”

“And I found this place,” Bill counters while making sure he’s not hurting him. “So what then?”

“That’s totally unfair!”

“That’s _most_ fair!”

“You suck as a roommate,” Ted gasps out, his tone still too giggly to mean it. “You’re a total scumbag!”

“Shut up, Ted, you dweeb,” Bill likewise teases as he pins his wrists to the edge of the pool.

“Okay, Bill,” Ted breathes and Bill thinks it’ll be over and the other man will stay still so he can be declared the winner, but instead water flurries on either side of him as a sudden weight clasps against his middle. It’s only when Ted smiles and says, “I’ll shut up,” does Bill realize that Ted’s got his legs wrapped around him to tug him close.

The new, warm feeling of their torsos pressed together makes his grip on Ted’s wrists loosen, giving him enough room to wriggle out of his hold and stretch his arms out onto the edge. He looks downright smug as he declares his victory, but Bill’s too preoccupied with how his skin feels just as soft as he remembers his lips feeling. He can’t help but shiver at how strong Ted’s legs are despite how relaxed the rest of his body is and he resists running his palms over his thighs to feel the muscles there. Bill doesn’t dare look down to see how they must look flush together, but looking at his face doesn’t help either. Ted still has little droplets of water on his cheekbones and his jawline and he’s thinking of kissing them away.

His hair has gotten so damn long since high school too, now brushing along his shoulders and Ted looks downright pretty when it’s wet like this. Until Ted gets tired of this, Bill’s fucked.

“What’s wrong, Bill,” Ted asks, squeezing around him once. “My most bitter roommate?”

Either Ted knows what he’s doing or he also hasn’t gotten any smarter. Whichever it is, the voice in his head screaming at him to do what he wants overtakes him and this time he remembers what he needs to do to make it a good kiss. Ted gasps against him the second he does, his arms slipping from the edge of the pool and just barely managing to grip at his shoulders before he pulls away to regroup after Bill gets a few in. His breathing is hurried and with the way his brow is furrowed while his legs slowly slip away, Bill’s terrified that he’s screwed up and scared him.

“B-Bill,” he gasps out, looking over his face. “Are you serious?”

“I’m sorry, dude,” Bill answers before moving away and trying not to lose it over Ted’s lost little expression when he turns to the stairs. “That wasn’t cool. I’m gonna go in, we can talk it out tomorrow.”

“No!”

As quick as Bill heard him, Ted grabs his wrist and pulls him back towards him to hug him close with a quiet, “Stay.”

This can’t be real. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Moving around so he can look at him and cup his face instead, Ted gives him a smile that he’s only seen him give Elizabeth with just as soft of a tone that he reserved for her in the past as he says, “If you mean it, then I’m ready.”

“For what?”

Ted laughs gently before leaning in for a featherlight, tentative kiss. “You don’t remember?”

Bill’s mind goes into a frenzy over the way Ted’s waiting for him expectantly, the edge of his crystal poking his skin with how tightly pressed together they are. He feels 16 again with how shy he feels when he gets his arms around Ted’s waist and holds him even closer before giving him another proper kiss like he wants because the truth is he could never forget. There’s a small bit of fear that they’ll be caught outside like this, but the fact that they’ve clearly had time to be even better at this keeps Bill from worrying too much. It doesn’t take much time at all for things to heat up more than it did back then when Ted tugs at his bottom lip with a small groan that threatens to get Bill hard in a way that would be most heinous right now. It’s hard trying to keep his cock in check when he lets himself slip his tongue in Ted’s mouth and pulls even more wonderful noises out of him. Doing this with another man is a lot to deal with, but like he said back then: if it had to be anyone, it was Ted.

When they pull away to catch their breaths, Bill downright whimpers and Ted giggles shyly before pressing his forehead to his. “I guess I’ll be okay,” he whispers, nuzzling against him.

“That was most triumphant,” Bill whispers back, the reality of what he thinks this is coming back to him now that he can think over the heat running through him. “Your work babe’s gonna love it.”

The way Ted’s breathing stutters and his smile falters slightly distracts from the heat even more. “Huh?”

“Jainie, dude,” Bill says with a shrug. “It’s Jainie you want to learn for, right? She’s a total ten, you’ll make her melt with that.”

“Dude.”

“What?”

Ted moves his arms down to rest at their sides instead, his face now fallen completely. “She’s going out with Bryce, remember? He works with me too, he was - he was here, dude, where were you?”

He’s definitely cooled down by now, remembering only brief glances he got of Bryce throughout the night. Yeah, he and Jainie were stood or swimming together when he saw him, but she and Ted were together a lot too and all he wanted to see was whether or not she was into him the same way that he’s-

Shit.

He moves his palms to carefully rest against the small of his back as he starts to apologize but Ted moves away before he can get a full word in, gripping the railing and looking up behind him. It’s then that he picks up on the sound of one of the apartments across from them open, one of their older neighbors sending off a friend for the night. She waves down at Bill who does his best to look courteous before she heads back inside, only for that facade to drop once he sees how mortified Ted looks when he looks back at him.

The last time he saw that expression, it was when he arrived at the Logan residence to help Ted move out and all Captain Logan could say at the sight of him was a spiteful, “I should’ve known.”

Once they’re safe and alone, though, Ted swallows thickly and shakes it off before gliding to the stairs and stepping out of the pool. “We’re gonna get all pruney if we stay out here,” he says as he picks up his towel and shakes it through his hair.

“Wait a minute,” Bill calls out, desperate as he swims over to lean on the edge closest to where Ted stands. “What about what we just did?”

“I’ll be okay,” Ted says while he moves on to drying off his skin in a hurry. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Just tell me who she is, I’ll show you whatever you want!”

Ted snorts and shakes his head, putting his towel around his neck and slipping on his flip-flops. “I didn’t say it was a she, Bill.”

With that, he scoops up his fanny-pack holding his key to the apartment and other necessities resting near the edge of the pool and heads upstairs to make his way inside their apartment. “Holy shit,” Bill says to himself, realizing just what he missed before smacking at the water in frustration. “Ted, wait!”

Ted ignores him as he gets on the third floor and heads in, but he does at least leave the door open which makes Bill hopeful as he sprints up the stairs so fast that he nearly slips when he’s out of the pool. He doesn’t bother toweling himself off and runs with it in his hands to get inside, his mind racing again with the possibilities that he and Ted could actually be a thing. Of course he’s scared of what that means for his identity once he’s at the doorway and stops to finally wipe himself down, but maybe he doesn’t even have to put a word on it. Maybe he can just like Ted and that’s it.

Like a Tedsexual or something. Excellent.

Once he’s satisfied with how dried off he is, he slips inside and locks the door behind him only to find Ted at the fishbowl. He’s kicked his flip-flops off and a few strands of hair still drip water down his back, but he seems content on his knees as he watches one of the fish swim around. Bill thinks it’s Jimi that’s asleep and this one is Eddie since his tail is a little longer than the other’s. Ted follows his movements with his fingertip lightly tracing against the glass, whispering, “You gotta get to sleep, little dude. It’s not good for you to stay up all night.” 

Watching Eddie is clearly helping him calm down and he knows he probably doesn’t want to see him right now, but Bill knows he won’t get any sleep either if he doesn’t at least try to talk to Ted. If he really doesn’t want to kiss or touch him anymore, he’ll swallow his pride and move on, but just letting it fall to the wayside would be the dumbest thing he’s ever done. That’s saying something for a guy who nearly got a US president thrown in jail by the cop who produced the person who means everything to him.

And wow, yeah. Ted does.

Ted’s long legs take up the full width of their kitchen so Bill can’t fully stand behind him, but he gets close to it with his hands wavering just inches away from him. He shouldn’t just grab him, not now, but he can see how tense his shoulders are from the sound of him approaching and he wants so badly to smooth them out. “Are they doing okay?”

It’s a dumb question since the fish are obviously fine, but it’s all he can think of. Thankfully, Ted nods, still focused on following Eddie’s patterns. “I’m happy we got them.”

That’s positive enough for him to think it would be alright if he let himself put one hand on one shoulder, so he does. Ted does twitch a little when he does, but he makes no moves to push him off which is a good sign. “Maybe we should head to bed too.”

The glass squeaks softly with the way Ted’s finger comes to a stop against it. He cranes his neck to look up at where Bill stares down at him and asks, “What do you mean?”

His voice has that soft quality again which gives Bill the courage to rest his other palm against him this time. “What do you want it to mean?”

Ted turns under his hands to slowly get up and Bill’s forgotten just how tall he is in contrast with how much smaller he felt in his arms just minutes ago. Yet even as he towers over him, Ted’s still smoothing his hands over his chest and wrapping his arms around his neck just like Joanna always did when they tried to engage in something physical so it seems like Ted wants to fill that more submissive role. It feels only natural to drift his own hands down to his waist as Ted looks him over and says, “You know I meant you now, right?”

Bill nods. “I do, my most - handsome colleague.”

Ted laughs and rests his forehead against his again, something Bill’s never gonna get tired of. “So you want me too.”

“Yeah,” Bill says. “I shouldn’t have made that totally bogus assumption. Either of them.”

“What’s the other one?”

Bill lets himself press a firm, single kiss against Ted’s lips. “That it was the princesses we were meant to be with.”

Ted’s mouth goes agape. “That was totally stupid, dude.”

“Yeah,” Bill says, ashamed. “But I know that’s not true now and-”

“Shut up, Bill,” Ted breathes before pulling him in for a deeper kiss, hopping up to get his legs around his waist.

It’s awkward now that they’re not floating in a pool, Bill stumbling once those long, gangly legs are clenched around him, but it only makes them laugh as he gets his balance enough to walk them through the living room into the bedroom. Once they get inside, Ted feels antsy against him which only encourages Bill to act on impulse and press him against the door once he’s got it shut to give him what he wants. There’s no need for soft buildup anymore, not with the way Ted’s shaky fingers are tugging at his hair and his ankles are locked behind him while they explore each other’s mouths. As Bill moves away to mouth at Ted’s neck instead, he feels even stupider for how he’s brushed this off for five years, the way Ted whispers his name in his ear making that worse.

He wonders if he should leave any hickeys against his skin so the universe can see they’ve finally figured things out.

Almost like he can read his thoughts, Ted moves his head back with a sigh to show more of it off and if that’s not a sign that this is destiny, Bill doesn’t know what is. The strangled little groan Ted lets out when Bill gently makes his mark to the left of his Adam’s apple certainly doesn’t hurt either, his hips bumping against Bill’s the second his teeth graze his skin. Joanna was nowhere near this sensitive the few times they did something similar and the way Ted reacts to every little movement makes Bill feel like he’s on fire, especially when he realizes what effect it’s having on him. He’s downright ecstatic that he doesn’t have to force himself to stay soft once Ted starts slowly grinding into him after he pulls away to grip his thighs and carefully lick at the bruise he’s made. It’s when he drags his lips further down to his collarbone that Ted pulls his hair sharp enough to make him pull away and look at his flushed expression. “Dude,” he gasps out softly, petting through Bill’s curls as a silent apology for the sting. “We can’t stay like this.”

He has a point, Ted’s thigh muscles taut against his palm. “Yeah - where to now?”

“My bed,” Ted says before letting himself stand as he takes Bill’s hands and kisses his knuckles. “I was too scared of my dad coming in to try to kiss you in my bed at home, but now I can.”

“Is that it,” Bill asks, letting Ted guide him over to his side of the bedroom. “You’d rather just do that?”

It genuinely wouldn’t be an issue if Ted decided to slow things down despite the full-on chubby he’s got going, but he’s relieved with the way Ted grins and shakes his head. “No way,” he says before letting go and flopping down onto the mattress with a happy little hum. “I want to feel you.”

Ted’s sensual tone and the way he immediately starts undoing his drawstring while keeping his eyes on Bill makes him wonder why he didn’t just make a move the second they moved in.

Yet there’s something about not being the one to get him naked that makes him rush to get seated on his knees between his legs and grab his wrists to lightly pin them against his pillow. Ted looks surprised at the action, leaning up to kiss him and say, “Dude, let me seduce you.”

Bill laughs, letting go of him and getting the drawstring untied the rest of the way. “I think you already did that.”

“But I want to make myself most alluring,” Ted reasons, lifting his hips up to help him get his boardshorts off. “A bodacious babe, a righteous sex symbol-”

“Shut up, Ted,” he says sweetly before tossing those shorts to the floor and coaxing his legs to fall open. “You don’t have to do that much to make me think you’re hot.”

And it’s true with how his own shorts start getting even tighter over seeing all of Ted below him. The trail of fine, dark hair under his navel leading down to his equally hard cock makes him want to lean down and trace it with his tongue just like the way Ted shudders when he runs his fingers above it does. “You just have to be you,” Bill continues, tracing his fingers down until he reaches the crease between his thigh and his groin. “That’s all.”

He wants to go ahead and let himself wrap his fingers around Ted, but Ted has other ideas, sitting up to tug at Bill’s own drawstring with, “You’re even better.”

“Hey, just relax,” Bill soothes, gently guiding him to lie back down once he’s gotten it untied. “We got all night, dude.”

Ted bites his lip while he watches Bill hop off the bed for the amount of time he needs to pull his shorts off and kick them away. “Wow.”

Bill feels a little self-conscious now that he’s on full display, but he hopes that’s a good “wow.” “What?”

“We’re really doing this,” he says with an excited laugh. “Excellent!”

He immediately air guitars and Bill can’t help but laugh back and join him before sitting back on the bed. Ted’s back sitting up but he’s given up on stopping him since he’s clearly determined to position them a certain way, the two of them gasping once Ted crawls into his lap and gets his fingers back threaded in Bill’s hair. He’s still a little too tall to be level with him, but not only does Bill not mind looking up to kiss him, there’s also plenty of room to lavish his neck and chest with attention now so he does as they get used to being pressed together like this. Ted hums and kisses his temple while he goes back to work near his collarbone, his hips lightly rocking against him while he says, “This is just like I pictured it.”

“Whoa,” he whispers against his skin before finally letting himself bring his hand down to give him an experimental stroke. “You thought about us?”

“A lot,” he says with a shuddering sigh, sounding shyer than before. “I couldn’t fight it anymore once you let me stay with you and I got to see you all the time.”

Bill pulls back from the second hickey he was in the middle of making to see Ted hiding behind his bangs. “Did you get off to it?”

Ted nods, bringing one of his hands down to rest on Bill’s stomach where he runs his thumb along his skin. “I tried not to because you were right next to me when it got really bad, but I had to get it out of my system,” he confesses. “It’s totally gross and totally weird, but - oh God, Bill.”

The way he sounds recounting it makes Bill take himself in his hand to join him, the feeling of their cocks pressed together even tighter making him groan too. “But what, Ted, keep going.”

“It wasn’t just once,” Ted says, closing his eyes and bucking up into his grip, grabbing his shoulders for leverage. “I snuck into your bathroom the first time, but after that I did it next to your bed so - shit, you’re gonna freak out.”

“I’m not gonna freak out, dude,” Bill pants as he strokes them. “Tell me.”

Ted moves his head to rest on his shoulder, hiding from him as he gasps, “I did it next to your bed so maybe you’d wake up and come down to finish me off once you saw me doing it.”

Bill doesn’t freak out but his brain does go highwire enough from picturing Ted writhing against his air mattress as he strokes himself to make him lean in for a searing kiss that makes Ted dig his nails into his shoulders and groan into his mouth. He has to chuckle at the way Ted tries to keep him nearby once he pulls away, but he has to get some air and say, “I wish I did now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, because this,” he says, flicking his wrist for emphasis and making them moan in harmony. “This is amazing - _you’re_ amazing, dude, you feel so good.”

“You too,” Ted whispers before pulling him back in, rolling his hips against him now and making Bill try his best to meet him through their kisses. Once Bill decides it’s time to get back to his collarbone, Ted nuzzles against the top of his head and asks, “You know what was most unfortunate though?"

“What, Ted?”

“When I-”

He stops to hiss at the way Bill can’t help but drag his teeth over his new hickey, but he still manages to scratch along his back to help him focus and finish his thought even if he pants it out this time. “When I tried to hook up with Elizabeth, I kept fucking it up. It was okay when we just made out, but if she tried to touch me or I tried to touch her, I just wanted it to be you.”

It makes so much sense now why Ted avoided talking about his encounters with her, but Bill still feels the pit of his stomach tighten in the right way at the thought because, “Joanna never felt like this either.”

“Nobody else will,” Ted bites out, clearly teetering towards the edge with how his hips stutter against him. “I don’t want anybody else.”

The way he can feel Ted twitch in his grip is sending him there too, but he’s determined to make Ted bust first so he moves back to his neck to press sloppy, open-mouthed kisses against him. “Is there anything else you want?”

Ted full on whines in his ear, nearly making Bill go against his wishes, but he stays strong as Ted grips his shoulders and squeezes his thighs tighter around him. “I want to blow you,” he breathes, his face turning pinker than it already was. “Want you to blow me too, want your mouth on me.”

“Absolutely, dude, whenever you want.”

“But what I want most - I want - fuck, Bill, I want-”

Bill reaches out to cup Ted’s face with the hand not steadily jerking them off to keep him grounded, knowing how overwhelmed he can get sometimes. He strokes his thumb against his cheekbone as he soothes, “You can tell me, it’s okay.”

Ted whimpers, nuzzling into his palm and kissing it before looking down at him and licking his lips. “I want you to fuck me in your bed.”

His voice still has a whining edge to it and Bill’s brain short-circuits beyond the autopilot of getting them off, unable to do anything else. He was right in guessing what their positions would be, but actually hearing Ted say it out loud as he rocked against him so fiercely that his crystal was smacking him in the chest was something else entirely. “I want that too,” he forces out finally, his rhythm having been long gone. “Next day off we have together, I’m gonna give it to you so good.”

"Please, dude."

"On your back, like this, whatever you want-"

“Good,” Ted sighs, full of life as he flashes that same, bright Ted grin he always does. “I need it, Bill, I _need_ you to fuck me, please.”

It was, in retrospect, incredibly foolish to think he could last longer when he’s got Ted in his lap begging him for it like that. Bill has no choice but to choke out his name and come into his fist, Ted following not too long after with that smile still on his face with the long, gasping moan he lets out maybe being the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard this side of Eddie Van Halen’s greatest guitar solo. As they come down, Ted falls back against the mattress, dragging Bill with him to rest on top of him instead with a sated, content sigh. Bill’s happy to go with him, but does wince when he lands directly on that damned necklace, making him raise up and push it out of the way; Ted doesn’t mind, though, just laughing softly and sitting up enough to take it off while Bill reaches for a tissue to clean up.

“You should wear those more often,” Bill says, watching him carefully drape it along the amp between their beds. “You look most alluring with them.”

Ted smirks when he lays back down, not complaining when Bill presses his face into his neck for much gentler kisses this time once he barely manages to toss that tissue into the small trash can on the other side of the room. “I think you just like my neck way too much.”

“So what?”

“So I’m gonna get a bunch of questions from Jainie and Bryce tomorrow,” he says dreamily, stroking just below his hairline. “They’re gonna rail on me all day for not telling them who did it.”

Bill looks up, curious. “Do you think they’d wig out about it? About, y’know…?”

Ted shakes his head, smiling at the way Bill gestures between them to signal what he means. “They’re pretty cool, I don’t think they’d get weird.”

“Then what’s up?”

“I don’t know,” Ted sighs, his foot coming up to drag along the back of Bill’s leg. “I think I like only us knowing. We’ve got a rad little secret just for us.”

Bill moves to kiss Ted directly this time, nodding once he pulls away. “I can stop then - help you keep it, you know?”

Ted nods, looking down at the way Bill’s running his fingers along his sides and getting shy again when he says, “You can always leave them where nobody can see.”

Moving one hand to rest over that freckle he still hasn’t kissed yet, Bill grins. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Thanks, Bill.”

Ted sounds genuinely relieved despite how long he’s clearly been waiting to be with Bill like this. Bill doesn’t pry about it, but with all the little worried glances he’s seen and certain things he’s heard whenever he’s been at the Logan household, he can only assume that being out in the open scares the shit out of the other man. The idea sounds hellish to him too, not wanting to deal with any stigmas that still come with liking other men and hating himself for all the times they ever said fag or homo or any other slur. Yet deep down, he probably would’ve been able to make himself laugh off being caught earlier even with the fear. Plus he could brag about getting to kiss _the_ Ted “Theodore” Logan and how totally excellent that was.

But he realizes that Ted just can’t do that, not right now, and if Bill has to wait forever to let the world know then that’s fine by him.

“Hey,” he says, trailing his finger lightly over that first hickey. “Maybe we could call the princesses super early tomorrow and get one of them to bring that coverup gunk to hide this.”

“But then they’ll know,” Ted counters, his eyes fluttering shut at the feeling.

“Dude?”

“Yeah?”

“I think they already know.”

Ted opens his eyes, frowning down at him. “How?”

“They’re pretty smart, Ted,” he answers with a shrug. “Maybe they broke up with us because they knew first.”

“No way.”

“Yes way.”

He looked doubtful, but Ted nods. “Babes are always most perceptive.”

“And we’re most braggadocious about each other,” Bill adds, shuffling until their faces are level. “They’re tied to us for life, though, dude. They have to be cool about it even if they’re gonna get all giggly about us.”

“Like they did when we met?”

“Way more,” Bill answers before leaning in to steal a kiss, a thrill running through him knowing that he can whenever he wants now. “Like we’re cute little dogs or something so be ready for it.”

“Yeah, alright.” Ted hums happily when Bill steals a second and pulls him with him to lay on their sides against the wall, the gentle way Ted’s fingers curl around his forearms making Bill weak in the sappiest of ways. “So, um,” Ted says, staying close enough for his lips to brush against his once they pull away. “When did you know you were into me?”

Bill’s never been able to lie to Ted, not seriously anyway; he definitely knows how to lie to himself, though, so remembering Joanna’s teasing and seeing how unassuming and sweet Ted looks after asking, he knows what he has to do.

“That first time you kissed me.”

Ted’s eyebrows shoot up. “But you said-”

“I know,” Bill replies, pushing Ted’s hair out of his face. “I just thought that’s what we were supposed to do.”

“Most unwise,” Ted says, the smile on his face letting him know there’s no malice in his words since he had to learn that the hard way too.

“Who cares about what we’re supposed to do, though, dude?” Their fates were back in play, he thought, but in terms of any societal bullshit, “It’s what we want to do and who I want to do with it is better than any babe. And he’s still a most excellent kisser too."

It all feels very cheesy coming out of his mouth and totally lame, but he means it and honestly? The way Ted lights up at the attention makes it feel amazing to get all ooey gooey like this even if calling Ted a boyfriend right now feels scary as all hell. The word feels heavy since he still doesn’t know what to call himself, for one, even if Ted’s clearly made up his mind about his identity. Both of them were forced to see going that way to be something to be ashamed of and even if they know how good it can be to let themselves feel it now, it’ll take some time to completely get over that. Granted, they’ve been in each other’s lives so long with such a fondness for each other that it feels right to just go ahead and do it since in a way not much has changed. They’re still just Bill and Ted: two stupid but sweet boys that are now two stupid but sweet men that just want to play music, make people happy, and stay close to each other while doing it, but.

Maybe they can just still be Bill and Ted but just with a little extra now.

“What about you?” he asks after Ted insists on scooting down and nuzzling into his chest as a thank you. “When did you figure it out?”

Ted squeezes around his torso once. “I’ve liked tons of babes,” he says against his skin, staying hidden. “But there was always one I liked the most out of all of them from day one even if I tried to hide it by liking them.”

“Really?”

That’s when Ted looks up and him and grins once more. “Yeah - and he’s definitely still a good kisser.”

A warmth filling him that he’d never experienced in quite this way before, Bill leans down to kiss that grin until Ted’s laughing him away so they can drift off to sleep. It’s become most apparent that no matter what, he still had somebody and definitely always would, which was worth a good night’s sleep in celebration.


End file.
